Australia: A Very Disappointing Race
By Jamie Makin
March 6 2005
Team SAUBER PETRONAS drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve finished in 10th and 13th places respectively in today’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
The drivers started on opposite ends of the grid, with Villeneuve in 4th and Massa in 18th. Villeneuve looked to be the team's best hope for a points scoring finish today but he quickly lost ground once the race was underway.
"That was a very disappointing race," the former World Champion mused. "We were a lot slower than I thought we would be. The car was very difficult to drive and I couldn’t get any grip at the start. That’s it."
Teammate Felipe Massa had his work cut out for him starting on the next to last row, but a one-stop pit strategy gave him the chance to move up. "It was pretty difficult to drive the car with a lot of fuel aboard but I managed reasonable times and was keeping ahead of Michael and Kimi until I got very close to Nick one lap and lost grip in his turbulence," the young Brazilian explained. "Anyway, I just did what I could and finishing 10th wasn’t so bad when you look where I started. In the circumstances, with lots of fuel, the car was good."
Despite the best efforts of the team, they were unable to score any points to kickstart their season. Technical Director Willy Rampf explained some of the difficulties. "We tried two different strategies today. Since Felipe had to start so far back we elected to run him on a one-stop plan, while Jacques made two stops. Unfortunately Jacques lost the majority of his positions after losing momentum battling with Nick in the first corner after the start, and we could not recover them. The season has started, we have learned a lot from this race, and we are already pushing forward with our development programme to put ourselves in a stronger position in Sepang."
Traditionally the SAUBER team does no testing between Australia and Melbourne as they conduct an intensive PR campaign in Petronas' home country. They face an additional challenge in that Villeneuve's and Massa's race engines cannot be worked on or changed before the race and they must endure the intense heat of Kuala Lumpur.
On a happier note, last year's SAUBER PETRONAS driver Giancarlo Fisichella scored a convincing pole and his second career win in his return to Renault.